Dear Dr. Soon-Shiong,
It’s been a year since you bought the Los Angeles Times, and we wanted to thank you again.
When the story of our revival is told decades from now, our return to local ownership will be remembered as the turning point. As media outlets across the country teetered on the edge of collapse, we worried we would lose our jobs and Los Angeles would lose its paper of record.
What a difference a year makes. We are incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made together. Thanks to your investment, the determination and loyalty of our staff, and the L.A. Times Guild’s fight to control our own future, The Times is ascendant again.
Three of our journalists won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, the 45th in our history. We have more time and resources to cover the issues that matter to our readers, at home, in Washington, across the nation and around the world. Your support has given us a fighting chance to build a sustainable business. The feeling in the newsroom is not just one of hope, but of ambition.
It’s also been a year since we began negotiating our first contract under the L.A. Times Guild. We want to resolve the negotiations so we can focus on what we do best: great journalism.
We know our newsroom still faces economic challenges, and you’ll notice that the crucial issues remaining on the table involve basic job protections for the journalists who are doing the hard work of rebuilding The Times.
Given the history in our industry and our own newsroom of outsourcing work to contractors and freelancers, we are asking for reasonable guardrails to protect our journalists and our work.
Your commitment to keeping The Times in your family for the next century was welcome news for a community that wanted a return to local ownership after two decades of executive turnover and lack of investment. We’ve asked for a successorship agreement that ensures a smooth transition and basic protections for our journalists in case of any unexpected changes.
If we do face layoffs, we want to ensure that severance is competitive for journalists who have dedicated their professional lives to The Times or have moved their families across the country to be a part of our next chapter.
We’re hopeful that, with steady and determined leadership, The Times can remain a strong voice for decades to come. Thank you for your commitment to our future, and the future of journalism.
Signed,
Bettina Boxall
Liam Dillon
Andy Nguyen
Maloy Moore
Matt Pearce
Andrew Khouri
Jaweed Kaleem
Kyle Kim
Laura J. Nelson
Ben Oreskes
Kristina Bui
Hugo Martin
Mariel Garza
Jad El Reda
Evan Halper
Danielle Parenteau Decker
Nathan Fenno
Colleen Shalby
Chris Megerian
Carolina A. Miranda
Geoffrey Mohan
Brian Park
Sarah Parvini
Edmund Sanders
Glenn Whipp
Kevin Ueda
Jon Schleuss
Jessica Roy
Samantha Masunaga
Reed Johnson
R. Marina Levario
Maria La Ganga
Carla Hall
Maya Lau
Adrienne Shih
Jared Servantez
Jay L. Clendenin
Anthony Pesce
Alex Wigglesworth
Nicole Santa Cruz
Margot Roosevelt
Sam-Omar Hall
Sean Greene
Lynn Meersman
Kent K. Nishimura
Bill Shaikin
Andrea Castillo
Blake Hennon
Laura Newberry
Emily Alpert Reyes
Jade Cuevas
Lisa Boone
Matt Fleischer
Claire Hannah Collins
Adriana Lacy
Gerard Lim
Jason H. Neubert
Gustavo Arellano
Angela Jamison
Ben Mims
Melanie Mason
Steve Eames
Gerrick Kennedy
Priya Krishnakumar
Rebecca Bryant
Paige St. John
Cindy Carcamo
Raul Roa
Ryan Faughnder
Matt Hamilton
Randall Roberts
Hamlet Nalbandyan
Teresa Watanabe
August Brown
Esmeralda Bermudez
Jessica Martinez
Julia Sclafani
Jason Clark
Brittany Hite
Jim Buzinski
Christine Mai-Duc
Phil Willon
Paul Ybarrondo
Robert Lloyd
Anh Do
Kurtis Lee
Mary Kate Metivier
Vanessa Martínez
Paul Pringle
Jessica Chen
Kiera Feldman
Jeanette Marantos
Sammy Roth
Courtney Lewis
Denise Florez
Lauren Raab
Michael Ottey
Cindy Chang
Marisa Gerber
Paul Feldman
Alexa Díaz
Dania Maxwell
Todd Martens
Luke Money
Del Quentin Wilber
Jennifer Haberkorn
Jackie Calmes
David Lazarus
David Montero
Deborah Vankin
Eduardo M. Gonzalez
Matthew Cooper
Christopher Reynolds
Adam Tschorn
Thomas Curwen
Andrew J. Campa
Christopher Knight
David Cloud
Tara Paniogue
David Zahniser
Noam N. Levey
Paul Thornton
Makeda Easter
Frank Shyong
Suhauna Hussain
Sandhya Kambhampati
Justin Chang
J. Brady McCollough
Alison Dingeldein
Christopher Goffard
Steve Saldivar
Carlos Santana
Roger Vincent
Iris Lee
Erika D. Smith
Rubaina Azhar
Martina Ibanez
Kim Christensen
Ben Brazil
Dakota Smith
Carlos Lozano
Hannah Fry
Andrea Roberson
Meredith Blake
Johana Bhuiyan
Paloma Esquivel
Jessica Gelt
Christie D’Zurilla
Mark Puente
Melissa Gomez
Tessa A. Bangs
Lauren Flynn
James Queally
Dorany Pineda
Nita Lelyveld
Ricardo DeAratanha
Calvin Alagot
Tony Barboza
Hillary Davis
Steve Lopez
Rachel Schnalzer
Lila Seidman
Ruben Vives
Kelly Corrigan
Daniel Miller
Elena Howe
Eduard Cauich
Sara Cardine
Jack Dolan
Ryan Menezes
Diana Marcum
Sergio Burstein
Mark Z. Barabak
Anthony Clark Carpio
Matt Stiles
Michael Finnegan
Al Seib
Anna M. Phillips
Diya Chacko
Andrew Greif
Gale Holland
Fidel Martínez
Melissa Etehad
Sonali Kohli
Josh Rottenberg
Jenny Jarvie
Brian van der Brug
Rong-Gong Lin II
Diego Medrano
Robin Abcarian
Austin Knoblauch
Noah Bierman
Eli Stokols
George Skelton
Elsie Ramos
Betty Chavarria
Alan Zarembo
David Lewis
Ben Poston
Sam Dean
Julia Wick
Tracy Wilkinson
Craig Marks
Janet Hook
Allison Mann
Seema Mehta
Don Lee
Molly O’Toole
Scott Wilson
Deborah Netburn
Jeffrey Fleishman
Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Jevon Phillips
An Amlotte
Anne Harnagel
Paul Duginski
Melody Petersen
Soumya Karlamangla
Mark E. Potts
Joel Rubin
Amy Kaufman
Tracy Brown
Kailyn Brown
Wendy Lee
Ben Bolch
Alene Tchekmedyian
Valerie Hood
Geoff Berkshire
Stuart Leavenworth
Vincent Nguyen
David Pierson
Hailey Branson-Potts
Brittny Mejia
Joe Serna
Richard Winton
Victoria Hernandez
Kevin Chang
Mark Olsen
Judith Pryor
Jaclyn Cosgrove
Rosanna Xia
Dan Santos
Steve Devol
Nardine Saad
Randy Lewis
Jeff Miller
Christian Orozco
Carla Rivera
Lisa Horowitz
Mikael Wood
Casey Miller
Dave Bowman
Mel Melcon
Mike Faneuff
Lucas Peterson
Minh Dang
Andrew T. Turner
Sue Worrell
Anne Elisabeth Dillon
Lynn Meersman
Angel Jennings
Taryn Luna
Adam Elmahrek
Kelcie Pegher
Louis Sahagun
Richard Read
Neal Leitereg
Harriet Ryan
Barbara Demick
Bakr Muhammad
Don Ragland
Yvonne Villarreal
Johana Bhuiyan
Agnus Dei Farrant
Sonja Sharp
Richard Martin
Jill-Marie Jones
Irfan Khan
Greg Braxton
Kevin Leung
Nancy Rivera Brooks
Jack Flemming
Rachel Dunn
John Penner
Craig Nakano
Jessica Perez
Charles McNulty
Nick Leyva
Fernando Dominguez
Lee Rogers
Dwayne Rogers
Allen J. Schaben
Adam Elmahrek
Nani Sahra Walker
James Kim
Matt Brennan
Ashley Lee
Joe Mozingo
Robert Gauthier